Hunting chickens with the ambassadors wife

When walking around in Dili one doesn´t meet a lot of norwegians, in fact there are not that many living here. Yet, a handful met at a the Norwegian Ambassy thursday night. Among the invited were Gunnar Stålsett, representatives from the "Students Peace Prize" NTNU, and a mysterious chicken.

As we are soon to discover, these people are all here because of their warm interest in helping Est Timor back on its feet. This young country (they got their independence in 1999) with its extremely young population (50 % of the population are under 16 years old) do not have the experiance neccessary to rise after years and years of war and conflicts. The timorese people live in poverty, yet the nation has the right to large oil ressourser offshore. This will, hopefully, contribute to a rising wellfare among the timorese people, and not end up in the pockets of the elite. The government has decided to seak international advices, and the norwegian experiance with the oil fund is now working as a model for how they might place their income from the oil industry.

A part from contributing to the nation building, some norwegians are very involved in the peace processes in East Timor. Last week, a group of young students from NTNU arranged The Students Solidarity Conference, in cooperation with the first winner of the Students Peace Prize, Laureate Antero Benedito da Silva. The participants were former winner of the Students Peace Prize. Their goal is to create a network among the organizations, so they may be a future support to each other.

One of the veterans when speaking of peace-work was also in Dili last week. Gunnar Stålsett, a close friend of the former Nobel Peace Prize winner and president of East-Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta, shows a deep interest in the people of East Timor, and seems to be a regular guest in Dili.

We all had the pleasure of meeting him, the students from NTNU and other norwegians in Dili, all inspirering us with their daily work. Yet, for some strange reason, I will forever connect this evening at the Norwegian Embassy in Dili with a two-legged creature, as the night ended with a garden-excursion led by the ambassadors wife, hunting around for a chicken. According to her it loved to be skratched on the back, and was a quite remarkable bird. Well, we never found it, I guess it didn´t skratch that night, so I just have to take her word for it.

Cause talking about commitment, nowone could beat the passion in the eyes of the embassadors wife while hunting for chickens in the garden.

"Into the wild"

On his day off Alfredo took us on a bumpy ride in the rural areas of Timor Leste. As we moved further and further away from the main road, things got bumpier every second. Crossing semi-dry rivers, moving some stones, finding alternative routes were the road had collapsed - Alfredo seemed unstoppable. The goal? An isolated village in the mountains, inhabited by people forced there by the indonesians during times of conflict.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has several educational projects in the area, and the neccessity of being creative whenever infrastructure holds it against you seems to be the the only way to get some progress.

On our way though the sceneric, green landscape we pass clusters of houses, goats, pigs, chickens fighting and children playing. It becomes rapidly clear that the car decorated with the NRC logo is well familiar to the locals. They all chear and smile as we pass by. Meeting this wonderful people I start thinking of the horrifing combats and attacks these peolpe has suffered. Everywhere are traces of the fights, apperent to the observer through all the ruined houses along the road.

Ongoing projects are providing these villages with a more easy life. Schools are being built, wells are digged and roads improven. Yet, not all places are benefitting from the development, at least not yet. We eventually had to give up our journey to the destinated village. Not far from the goal we found that the road was ruined and there was no alternative route. The most severe consequense is the lack of instant health services, as people has to consult medical advice far from their homes. One can only hope that the government will provide for better connections all the way to the village.

Postive things are happening, yet the sight of children with bleached hair caused by mal-nutrition clearly demonstrates the complexity of the challenges this country is facing.



Traditional houses



These people were happy for the ride until the damaged road forced us to choose another direction, leaving them with their heavy bags of rice in the heat.



A school built by the NRC



These women are preparing akka - despite it´s lousy level of nutrition - in lack of alternative food.



They are still depending on the food provided by the UN.



Just another day in the office...



My heart nearly stopped when the car almost tipped over a couple of times!



This is where the road conquers the intruders - we give up and turn around.



Fellow-travellers on the roads of Timor Leste



No comment neccessary : )

Dili, East Timor

Finally in Dili. After meeting with Alfredo at NRC and his staff, we went out for dinner and an early bed last night. Couldn´t sleep, of course. Too many impressions in the last few days to relax properly.

The city of Dili is small, approx. 170000 inhabitants. 5000 of these are UN-personell. Even though there are no tourists here, I get a strange sensation that the UN presence has some of the same effect on the city. Four-wheel-drivers everywhere, robo-cops running on the beach, knekkebrød in the foodstores etc. As usual in theese situations, there has been created an industry around the NGO´s and the UN. Makes me wonder what happens when they leave...

Today we went for our first visit in a camp, which is more of a transmittion camp actually. Most refugees have gone home, or at least left the camp. The rest of the camps will close during 2010. Our main focus will be to interview refugees about their time in the camp, and try to understand some of the extremely conplicated issues regarding womens safety in the camp situation.

Standing at the doorstep about to enter the world of the refugees, I find it both intimidating and exiting thinking about the days ahead. I feel confident that we will succeed in the end, but ohhhhh, we sure have a long way to go to get there!



My first picture from Dili showing the roof of the NRC Head Quarter and the view to the mountains surrounding the city.

Sweet anticipations...

That´s it then. Last day at school before leaving for East Timor. Tomorrow Kristine and I set off from Gardermoen. We fly Oslo-London-Dubai-Jakarta. In Jakarta we will catch up with Rita, and stay there for a couple of days before leaving for Dili, East Timor.

I can feel a great deal of anticipation building up inside. Five weeks in East Timor! Weeks that will (hopefully) be filled with valuable discussions, interesting experiances and new perspectives. In fact, while thinking about it I find it rather hard to concentrate. I better get home to pack my bags instead...

Øst Timor neste!

Som man sår høster man. Og høsten 2009 har vi jaggu plantet, vannet og pleid så godt at det nå er på tide å høste flybilletter til det fjerne Asia. Rita, Kristine og jeg skal til Dili i Øst Timor for å gjøre feltarbeid i en flyktningleir. Med kompetanse innen landskapsarkitektur, samfunnssikkerhet og endringsledelse skal vi se nærmere på kvinners sikkerhet i en slik abnormal situasjon. Bakgrunnen er at mange kvinner utsettes for vold og overgrep, og vi spør oss om de gjeldene resolusjoner fra FN fungerer i felt, og hva som kan gjøres for å bedre forholdene.

Vi har alle samme tema, men ulikt fokus. Min problemstilling lyder som følger: In what way can physical design be used to support the effort to protect women in refugee camps?

Flere rapporter fra flyktningleire legger vekt på at de fysiske omgivelsene muliggjør overgrep. På samme tid finnes det innen mitt fagfelt en tradisjon som mener å kunne hindre overgrep og kriminalitet ved bruk av fysisk design. Jeg vil se nærmere på den litteraturen som finnes og se om noe av dette kan overføres til en flyktningleir.

Samtidig er det for oss viktig å snakke med flyktningene, de ansatte i hjelpeorganisasjonen og lokale organisasjoner. Hva som oppfattes som trygge og gode boforhold i en vestlig by kan oppleves annerledes i en flyktningeleir i Øst Timor. Likeledes kan flyktninger i Kongo ha helt andre behov igjen. Derfor ser vi det som essensielt å dra i felt, og lære av hvilke oppfatninger og normer som råder i andre kulturer.

Jeg vil bruke denne bloggen til å fortelle fra feltarbeidet, og videre fra diplomarbeidet på studio 1 på AHO i løpet av våren. Jeg ser fram til et spennende semester, og er sikker på at læringskurven blir bratt og utbyttet stort.